THE CANCER KILLING PDCOM - Blow-by-Blow Coverage of Democratic Primary Race

[tyrannosaurus vex]

wtf, cram

bitching about political landscapes we have no intention of taking up arms to enforce or protect is the new american pastime.

[Cain]

I thought the House Democrats luuuuuuuuuuuuuurved Hillary?

Sure, the rest of the country, including most progressive elements within the Democratic Party and pretty much 99% of anyone on the right hates her guts, but the same could be said of Bush, and it didn't really result in gridlock....

That's because the Dems have no fucking balls.

Well neither did the Repubs, if it we're talking about standing up to Bush.  There wouldn't be political deadlock, it'd just be deadlock in the media discourse.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

No, of course the GOP doesn't stand up to Bush. The Dems were the ones who swept Congress in 06 promising a strong new direction, and they have delivered exactly fuck all. At the very least, even without enough votes to actually pass new laws, they could have obstinately blocked all attempts by the GOP to gain any ground, but they're afraid of looking "weak on Terrorism," which I guess is worse than being weak on the Constitution.

Anybody who has watched Washington for the past six years and still thinks there is hope for the Republic is a complete tool.

[Jenne]

Exactly.  And have the Americans even TRIED to hold their gummament accountable for this?  Naw.  Why bother?  "They don't listen ANYway!"

Ugh.

We lost this "democracy" to the corporate fucks so long ago, people barely nudge themselves awake enough to notice what's going down.

[Roo]

Is a Republic, not democracy...but yeah. People only care about what's going on in the part of the world they can see.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Which is why revolutions are always violent. By the time it gets bad enough for people to wake up and do something, there's no solution other than war.

[Jenne]

Is a Republic, not democracy...but yeah. People only care about what's going on in the part of the world they can see.

Hence the quotations around democracy.  People often forget what a representative is for.  They are there to represent interests of their voters/constituents.  But making them work for the non-corporate fuck is a lot harder to do than just accepting their fuckstick up your ass.  Because that's what you're used to, after all.

[AFK]

No, of course the GOP doesn't stand up to Bush. The Dems were the ones who swept Congress in 06 promising a strong new direction, and they have delivered exactly fuck all. At the very least, even without enough votes to actually pass new laws, they could have obstinately blocked all attempts by the GOP to gain any ground, but they're afraid of looking "weak on Terrorism," which I guess is worse than being weak on the Constitution.

Anybody who has watched Washington for the past six years and still thinks there is hope for the Republic is a complete tool.

Here, here.  We're on our own people. 

[Jenne]

What's changed there?

Thing is, scratch the surface of any presidency and it's the same thing, over and over again.

On the flip side, though, there are times and movements where just the right mix netted a beautiful result--like the Civil Rights Movement, Roe v. Wade, etc.

[AFK]

troof.

I think one of the biggest things that is turning me off this go-around is the media.  I know Politics has always been a game, but really, the networks are making their coverage look just like sporting events.  And it seems like the way they talk about it sounds more and more like some kind of football game or something.  When they talk about what strategies a candidate should use, it's framed as "what strategy will get them more delegatees", "what strategy will get them more Super delegates", etc.  The talk of strategies have little to nothing to do with how the campaigns will actually affect the people they are looking to serve, the American people. 

Maybe all along we've always been left out of the equation, but I guess this go around if feels more blatant than ever. 

[Jenne]

That's why you should watch Jon Stewart for levity.  He catches all their bullshit and makes fun of it, ad nauseum, ad infinititum.  Gives some perspective to all their harranguing and meta-strategizing.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Which is why revolutions are always violent. By the time it gets bad enough for people to wake up and do something, there's no solution other than war.

Well sure... but they have all the good guns, bombs, non-lethal madness, and (as George Carlin reminded us) "they have all the flamethrowers".  At one time I thought a digital revolution might happen, but then the government got wise and hired lots of good hacker minds. 

So we can complain and not vote... complain and vote... not complain and vote or not complain and not vote.

As of right now, there doesn't really appear to be another option.

[Cain]

Where was the mass violence in the 1989 revolutions again?

I must have missed the bloodbath that happened in every single Warsaw Pact country.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Cain, you have a good point. If we can get the Federal Government to fail entirely and go bankrupt... then maybe the States will be free to secede. Of course, the States seceding doesn't particularly mean good things for citizens, but its a useful analog to the late 80's/early 90's in Eastern Europe. The USSR failed, the member states withdrew, and the citizens got fucked... just this time by local thugs instead of the ones living in Moscow. More of a disillusion than a revolution, wasn't it?

[Cain]

Yeah, but you could say the same about almost any revolution, except that there was a notable lack of thousands of dead people in this particular case.  That there was a significant and huge change in the power structure of the countries in question is undeniable.  Which opens up the prospect of other forms of change that don't involve rivers of blood.